Digital Content and Media Accessibility

This Special Thematic Session will address the question of digital content and media accessibility with a focus on emerging innovative practices and technologies in the field of digital content accessibility and publishing on the one hand and in the field of audio-visual media on the other.

Digital Content Accessibility

Digital content accessibility refers to the inclusive practice of making digital contents usable by people of all abilities and disabilities. This item is closely linked to the wider item of web accessibility, for which significant progress has been made to improve the accessibility of digital content.

In the publishing sector the evolution of electronic formats has created new opportunities to produce and deliver digital contents accessible from scratch, needing less additional processing or adaptation. Yet digital reading is a complex process that involves not only formats, but also instruments (reading software, apps and devices) and containers (websites, e-commerce channels). As new technologies emerge, innovative approaches and solutions offer disabled users new ways of delivering and interacting with content.

Media Accessibility

(Audio-visual) Media provide an efficient way of gaining access to information and entertainment and over the recent years new technologies have emerged with a great potential for increased accessibility raising high expectations from people with sensory disabilities. At the dawn of the 21st century television is an almost universally used technology. For this reason and for many years, solutions, standards and legislation have been developed in order to enhance the accessibility of audio-visual media. The convergence of digital media offer both opportunities and challenges to media accessibility in a field that is evolving at an ever-increasing pace.

As the digital switch-over is being completed in Europe, the hopes for an increased accessibility of AV media have been poorly met while the up-and-coming technologies in the media arena bring along new accessibility challenges and fears that the progress done so far may be forgotten. Limitations and barriers preventing AV media accessibility from becoming a mainstream reality now lay in various aspects and are no-longer limited to technological problems. These are related to usability, interoperability and standards issues as well as lack of business-case for take-up by mainstream actors, legal barriers (for example for the transnational reuse of accessible content), difficulties in the reuse of accessible content over time and across different platforms as AV content is longer viewed on television only and the life-time of content is often longer than that of the delivery platform etc.

Topics

Let us know about innovative approaches to digital content and media accessibility and ways in which it can be improved. Papers are welcomed on the following topics but please feel free to make other suggestions and contact the STS Chair if you have any questions.

  • Digital Content Accessibility and Publishing (Formats)
  • eBooks Accessibility and mainstream instruments (devices, software, apps…) and containers (websites of bookstores, libraries…)
  • The accessibility of the digital reading value chain (from producer to final user)
  • The role of technology to help publishers in producing better accessible content
  • Approaches to AV media Accessibility
  • Interoperability of access services
  • Technologies facilitating the automation of accessibility metadata of audio-visual content
  • AV media convergence and accessibility
  • Hybrid Television
  • Connected TV
  • Accessible cinema
  • Creative partnerships between key stakeholders
  • Game Accessibility

This Special Thematic Session is hosted in collaboration with the Technology and Innovation for Smart Publishing project (TISP).

TISP Logo


Blueish Photo of a lower half of an antique head; source: David Crombie  David Crombie, Utrecht School of the Arts


Submission:
Contributions to a STS have to be submitted using the standard submission procedures of ICCHP at:
ICCHP Conference Tool

When submitting your contribution please make sure to select the right STS under the category "STS/Session".
Contributions to a STS are evaluated by the Programme Commitee of ICCHP and by the chair(s) of the STS.
Please get in contact with the STS chairs for discussing your involvement and pre-evaluation of your contribution.

Submission Deadline: February 1, 2014